Tars Tarkas, ruler of the Tharks struggles with his conscience before making a weighty decision. His daughter, Sola tries to sway him in the other direction.

John Carter lay sleeping with his lustrous wife, Dejah Thoris, and was unaware of the furry threat creeping up the palace wall towards them. A great White Ape lumbers over the pair and eloquently beckons the Warlord of Mars to accompany him.

JC only has time to whip his loincloth back on before creeping away into the night with an uncannily intelligent Ape. It pilots a skyship too! When John tries to question their course, the Ape is brusque with his retort. Just what Carter doesn't need; a White Ape with an attitude.

The moonlight flit leads to a desert cave mouth. Finally.... it's come down to this; one last dance with the Great One. The Mixed Martian retells his history, revealing he is actually millions of years old. Remaining dormant for millennia, but sentiently observing the evolution of Mars.

With all that accumulated knowledge, and also empathically sensing the decline of the planet's ecology, what does the miscegenetic Martian do upon birthing? Hatch a plan to kill off most of the planet's population. Recruit like-minded apostles and form the Council of Five. Their long-standing ambition to engender his own Martian Eugenics program.

This rails against Carter's beliefs, and the time for talking is done. Violence is the only dialect of recourse now. Formidable as the Great One is, John Carter battles him to a blood-drenched standstill.

Something cracks in the Great One's resolve. Whether he loses faith in his own credo, one can never say, but even he turns to run from his inevitable fate. John can only lay witness to the demagogue's demise.